Thread: Nwestnj - разные вопросы по грамматике

I get confused with when тебя или тебе should be used. I had thought it was gender specific such as when talking to a woman тебя would be used but I know believe that to be incorrect so how is the word used properly?

I haven't come across Her or Him yet as pronouns.

How would I say, "I Know Her"
Я знаю ее

I know him
Я знаю его

Is that the correct usage of the pronoun.

In Russian (as well as in many other Indoeuropean languages) in addition to the gender and number system there is a system of grammatical cases. Each noun, adjective, pronoun etc. have 6 different case forms (for each number and gender if applicable). Which one is used depends on the grammatical role of a word in a sentence.

That is a rather hard entry point for (let us say) an English-speaking beginner. You hardly can learn that from occasional questions in forum. You need at least a textbook with some theory and a set of exercises.

So the forms of "ты" (you) are the following:

Nominative - ты
Genitive - тебя
Dative - тебе
Accusative - тебя
Instrumental - тобой, тобою
Locative - тебе

Yes, the phrases are correct.

BTW here are remnants of the case system in English. Personal pronouns in modern English have 2 case forms

Nominative - I, he, she, we, they
Objective - me, him, her, us, them

In Russian each noun, pronoun and adjective have 6 case forms.

Just a small example to drop some light on how the cases work:

показать тебя (ACCUSATIVE) to someone = to show you to someone:
Я покажу тебя моим родителям. = I will show you to my parents. I will introduce you to my parents.

показать тебе (DATIVE) something (or someone) = to show something (or someone) to you.
Я покажу тебе моих родителей. = I will show you my parents.

Please note that the word order can vary, it is not important to understand the phrase.

Я покажу тебя моим родителям. = Я покажу моим родителям тебя. - Тебя is a direct object, and моим родителям is an indirect object, regardless of the word order.
Я покажу тебе моих родителей. = Я покажу моих родителей тебе. - Тебе is an indirect object, and моих родителей is a direct object, regardless of the word order.

The direct object here means "what is being shown", and the indirect object "to whom this thing is shown".

The following phrase seems strange a bit, but it is fully understandable in Russian:
Я покажу тебя тебе. or you can arrange it a different way: Я покажу тебе тебя.
It can be used when I am going to show you a picture of yourself taken when you were young, for example.

In English it does not make much sense, I think: I will show you you

It depends on case as was explained higher

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

Just a small example to drop some light on how the cases work:

показать тебя (ACCUSATIVE) to someone = to show you to someone:
Я покажу тебя моим родителям. = I will show you to my parents. I will introduce you to my parents.

показать тебе (DATIVE) something (or someone) = to show something (or someone) to you.
Я покажу тебе моих родителей. = I will show you my parents.

Please note that the word order can vary, it is not important to understand the phrase.

Я покажу тебя моим родителям. = Я покажу моим родителям тебя. - Тебя is a direct object, and моим родителям is an indirect object, regardless of the word order.
Я покажу тебе моих родителей. = Я покажу моих родителей тебе. - Тебе is an indirect object, and моих родителей is a direct object, regardless of the word order.

This is very helpful. спасибо Боб.

I'll work on some phrases to see how well I understand.

I like to pick some verbs I would like to use in conversation. Please let me know where I make mistakes.

я говорю немного Русским
I speak a little Russian.

ты говоришь отлично Русским
You speak Russian very well.

мы все говорим Английскиий
We all speak English

я начинал учиться и говорить Русским недавно
I started learning and speaking Russian recently

я буду говорить Русским бегло один день. С надеждой.
I will speak Russian fluently one day. Hopefully.


How does that sound?

Я немного говорю по-русски.
Ты отлично говоришь по-русски.
Мы все говорим по-английски.
Я начал учиться говорить по-русски недавно.
Однажды я буду говорить по-русски бегло. Я надеюсь.

Bob did an excellent job providing enough examples of how "тебе" (Dative) and "тебя"(both Genitive and Accusative) are used in speech.

Another helpful way to see the difference between these two forms of the Personal Pronoun "ты" would be to familiarize yourself with the main functions of each of the six Cases, just like it-ogo advised. E.g.:

The Genitive Case expresses absence:
Я сказала, что ТЕБЯ нет дома.

The Accusative Case indicates the direct object (= focus, recipient) of the action that is named by a transitive verb:
Я вижу ТЕБЯ.
Я слышу ТЕБЯ.
Поздравляю ТЕБЯ с Днем Рождения!
Как я ТЕБЯ найду/узнаю?
Я люблю ТЕБЯ.


The Dative Case indicates the indirect object of the verb, usually it is a person who receives something named by the direct object:
Что мама подарила ТЕБЕ?
Я принесла ТЕБЕ (indirect object) цветы (direct object).
Я расскажу ТЕБЕ (indirect object) все новости (direct object).
Or in Bob's example:
Я покажу ТЕБЕ (indirect object) моих родителей (direct object).

Blessings in mastering Russian!

It sounds terrifying) or as been translated by the google
Я немного говорю по-русски
Ты отлично говоришь по-русски
Все мы говорим по-английски
Я недавно начал учиться говорить по-русски
Однажды/ когда-нибудь я буду бегло говорить по-русски. Я надеюсь
Variants been offered by it-ogo are also correct but I've tried to make them sound more habitually

Спасибо Daniel и it-ogo

I find that very helpful